Oct 10, 2026 8:44 AM
Updated Oct 10, 2026 2:31 PM
Despite a frustrating road defeat, Aiden Flora’s second-half surge and a dominant special teams performance offer a blueprint for the Cyclones to salvage their season moving forward.
Iowa State falls to 3-3 after a 24-10 Friday night loss to No. 8 BYU. As head coach Jimmy Rogers looks to get the season back on track, the formula moving forward is clear: lean heavily on the bright spots from this tough road test.
Here are the three stars from the Loss to BYU:
Aiden Flora
Flora has been dominant all season, and although facing one of the top run defenses in the nation in BYU, he still was able to show up and perform. Despite struggling in the first half, where BYU's front seven limited Flora to just 11 rushing yards. Flora showed grit and skill. In a remarkable turnaround during the second half, Flora was able to show off his patient and downhill running style as he ran for 75 yards and proved to be the only reliable source of offense for the team during the game. By the end of the game, he was able to rush for 86 yards on 17 carries (5.1 YPC).
Tyler Claiborne
In a game with not a lot of options for “star” performers from this offense or from this team overall Tyler Claiborne performed well for the Iowa State offense against BYU. Since quarterback Jaylen Raynor was unable to reach 100 yards through the air because of heavy pressure from BYU, Claiborne became the most dependable receiver for the team. Claiborne finished the game with three receptions for 31 receiving yards contributing to the team's offensive even though the team as a whole had a difficult time.
Jonah DuPont
DuPont was needed a lot in this game and did his job well when called upon. DuPont had six punts for 303 yards with an average of 50.5 yards per punt with two of his punts landing inside the 20 and one punt being recovered by the special team unit after a muffed punt by BYU's Tiger Bachmeier early in the 4th quarter inside the BYU 49 to set up one of Iowa State's only touchdown drives.
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